Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Tory delusion

At least Mrs. Thatcher knew where she was going. The current generation of leaders of the Conservative Party lack any sense of direction. Hopefully tomorrow the British people will punish them in proportion. This is what an article in The New York Times just said:
"First
there was the Brexit drama. Now comes the farce. Almost a year after a
narrow majority of Britons voted to pull out of the European Union, British voters face a general election on Thursday that was as unwanted as it was unexpected.

One thing on which all people agree about Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May: She knows how
to keep a secret. Even senior party colleagues were taken unawares by
the timing of the snap June 8 election. Most still appear to be in the
dark about what their campaign message is supposed to be. The prime
minister’s mantra, “Strong and stable leadership,” was fine as far as it
went. But to what larger purpose?

“Brexit
means Brexit” also has a clean ring to it, but Mrs. May has had trouble
spelling out what a post-European Britain would look like. There is a
world of difference between an amicable divorce and a messy one.

A more honest slogan would be: “Making the best of a bad job.” But no one, not even the party of Winston Churchill,
is in the business these days of selling blood, sweat and tears.
Brexiteers propose instead recapturing the spirit of an earlier
Elizabethan age, when plucky English buccaneers forged pathways to the
New World. This is a delusion based on a fantasy of how the 21st-century
world works..."